The Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA (CME) welcomes a trio of Federal Government commitments unveiled today designed to improve reliability in WA's main power grid, support the establishment of green ammonia production and strip carbon emissions out of industry.
The 1500MW Murchison Green Hydrogen Project has been selected for support through the Hydrogen Headstart fund and will receive $814 million in production incentives to use wind and solar power to create green ammonia for export.
On Thursday it was also confirmed four battery projects totalling 654MW have successfully bid for support through the Commonwealth's Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) in WA's first tender, exceeding the planned tender size of 500MW.
It was also announced Simcoa, Australia's only silicon manufacturer, would receive $39.8 million through the Powering the Regions Fund (PRF) to expand charcoal production at its Kemerton facility to replace the use of coal.
CME Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Tomkinson said each of the three announcements supported aspirations to establish WA as a global leader in low-emission manufacturing.
"It is encouraging to see the Federal Government backing up its words with actions and recognising the role it will be required to play to help WA become a green energy superpower," Ms Tomkinson said.
"However, the scale of the task ahead remains enormous. Realising WA's potential will require a sustained focus on both incentivising new future-facing industries and ensuring the fundamentals are in place to support the continued success of our existing resources operations.
"The most basic building block is energy that is affordable, reliable and low-emission. Unfortunately, WA is currently seeing costs skyrocket.
A CME report examining the decarbonisation of the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) found current and planned battery storage capacity was likely to be sufficient until 2030 but transmission and generation investment was urgently required. That included a six-fold increase in wind generation capacity and doubling of both solar and gas-fired generation.
"CME has consistently called for the WA Government to urgently release a draft transmission masterplan for the SWIS that outlines exactly where and when the new high-voltage lines will be constructed," Ms Tomkinson said.
"Without that blueprint, it is almost impossible to attract investment in large-scale solar and wind generation.
"Wind is particularly important to ensure WA has a source of low-emission electricity when the sun isn't shining and would be ideally suited to future support through the Commonwealth CIS.
"Uncertainty over the future availability of low-emission energy is having a chilling effect on investment in the kinds of industries WA is desperate to attract and acting as a major barrier to moving further down the value chain into processing and refining the raw materials we have mined here for generations."
